Of Gardens and Roses
by Alex T. Wallman
Summary: A group from the British Wizarding World travel to the Eastern Wonderland in search of their missing saviour, but who's to say that she wants to leave? Fem!Harry, no pairings, Alive!Dumbles.


Of Gardens and Roses

By: Alex T. Wallman

Author's Note: Basically, Fem!Harry leaves Britain after the War and then just up and disappears. This is a story about what happens when they find her. This is just a one shot, but I might extend it if I feel like it. Fem!Harry's birth name is Rose by the way.

Also Dumbles and Snape survived. Somehow.

~}{~

She sips at her tea as they approach, never once turning to greet them or acknowledge that they're behind her. Although she is irritated merely by their presence, she doesn't allow her almost omnipresent smile to fade. She keeps herself from reacting as she hears them tromping through her garden, acting as if they own the place. She chuckles gently to herself as she feels Albus letting his magic loose, trying to intimidate both her and the ones who had followed the contingent that he had led to her. She doesn't turn around as she addresses the one who led them to her in Japanese, "You know, Hakurei Reimu, that I do not like to be disturbed."

The Red and White Shrine Maiden merely snorted as she responded, "Yeah, well, they wouldn't stop bugging me until I helped them see you. It was either bringing them to you, or they would have just kept bugging me."

"Hmph, I'll accept your excuse this time, if only because I know how annoying they can be. And, what about the rest of you, other than my uninvited and most assuredly unwelcome guests?" She asked without turning around. There was a small chorus that boiled down to the fact that they saw the Hakurei shrine maiden leading the group from the outside to her doorstep and got curious. She snorted as she refilled her teacup, not bothering to ask the others if they wanted anything, instead asking, "So, what did you come here for then?"

"We came to bring you home, Rose." Albus answered, she could here him forcing his words to come out as honeyed as possible, trying to get her to trust him. She didn't even bother to snort this time; she chuckled outright at his audacity, "Oh? But I am home, I have no idea as to what you mean, Albus?"

"He means to England, Rose! Back to Britain!" Ron shouted, as he stomped forward, his eyes blazing as he reached for her shoulder. Just as his hand was about to reach her shoulder, she turned by herself and the sight shocked him. Not that she was hideous or that she was grievously scarred, no, it was the sheer hatred in her eyes despite her pleasant smile that staggered the youngest male Weasley. She put her unoccupied hand up to her cheek as she responded, "I'm sorry Ronald, but I am much happier here. Free to care for my garden, free to do as I wish without people hounding my footsteps, free to live as I want. I have no desire to return to Britain, especially after so long."

"What do you mean by 'so long', Rose? It's only been a few years…" And there was Hermione, asking a very obvious question. It was Rose who chuckled in response, "When you investigated the place where I disappeared, what did you find that didn't belong?"

"There was, there was sand… but what does sand have to do with this?" Hermione wondered aloud, only for Dumbledore to provide the answer.

"Time Turner sand… you broke a Time Turner…" He was visibly horrified by the thought of what she had done, his eyes wide. He could barely put the words together as he continued, "You, there's no way that you could control where you arrive. To make a gamble like that is utterly reckless…"

"Yes, it was quite an experience. I was hoping to land in the future when Rose Potter had been all but forgotten; instead I landed in Japan a thousand years ago alone and unable to speak the language. Had it not been for Yukari finding me, I would likely have died within my first year in the past, either by starvation or by one of the roving bandit groups." All throughout her short story, the smile never left her face. She chuckled lightly as she remarked, "Though Crazy Hassan and his camels did get me out of a rough patch when I was being chased for my identity as a foreigner and a witch."

"But… how are you still alive? No one can live for a thousand years… It's impossible for a human to live that long, even witches and wizards only live for just over a hundred years at most…" Hermione's eyes were wide with shock and fear as she tried to puzzle out how her friend had survived for so many years. Dumbledore was looking decidedly contemplative while Ron simply exploded, "You've gone dark! That must be why you didn't age, some dark ritual to keep you alive forever!"

"If a ritual like that existed, then why didn't the Dork Lump Short-shorts use it? Because there is no ritual, I simply evolved. As I lived in the past, people started to fear and loathe me. Legends spread about me and my magic, they told of how I would conjure and manipulate plants to defeat my foes. As I lived, tales spread and I changed, my hair turned green as I started to store chlorophyll while my eyes lost their pigment. I stopped aging, disease and illness simply flowed around me and left me untouched." Her smile was deep as she looked at them, the expression of pleasantry heavily contrasting her bitter tone. Her gaze swept over the assembled group, the divide between the people of Gensokyo and the intruders from Hogwarts obvious, as the intruders were dumbfounded while the residents of the Eastern Wonderland seemed to be merely curious. She picked up her tale after taking a quick sip from her tea, frowning briefly at the fact that it had gone cold, "Of course, the change wasn't with out its complications. The hunger was unbearable until Yukari taught me how to deal with it, she taught me how to fly under the radar, and she taught me how to survive while I was still young and weak."

Dumbledore was the first of the Hogwarts contingent to regain his voice, the question leaving his mouth as a quiet murmur, "What… what have you become, Rose? My dear girl, what have you become?"

The barking laugh that she let out was one would haunt Dumbledore's nightmares, her smile a cruel slash across her face. She looked him square in the eye and let loose the reins she had on her power, her calmly spoken words shaking them to the core, "I am a youkai, a monster. I am an Ayashi, a spirit, an oddity. I threw away the name of Rose Potter, to become something so much more to my liking.

"I am the Youkai of Flowers." She put down her teacup and stood to her full height, just a few inches shorter than Ron.

"I am the Sleeping Terror of Gensokyo." She grabbed her parasol and spun it lightly in her palm.

She turned to them fully as she cracked her neck and announced, "I am the slayer of the Demon Lord Shinki, the Usurper of her Ultimate Magic."

The outsiders now realized that each and every one of the sunflowers had turned to 'face' them, rather than the sun as they usually did. The residents of Gensokyo however, knew the warning signs and had all taken to the air.

"I am Yuuka Kazami." Her parasol was pointed at them, the metal embellishment at its apex gleaming in the sunlight.

"Now what did you say that you wanted?"


End file.
